Join us as we celebrate Women’s History Month with a presentation about the the professional career and public service accomplishments of the remarkable Texas trailblazer Oveta Culp Hobby (January 19, 1905 – August 16, 1995).
Born on January 19, 1905, in Killeen, Texas, to Texas lawyer and legislator Isaac William Culp and Emma Elizabeth Hoover, Oveta Culp Hobby was a trailblazing American public servant and media executive who became the first director of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) during World War II, attaining the rank of colonel and receiving the Distinguished Service Medal. In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed her as the first secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), making her only the second woman to serve in a U.S. presidential cabinet. Her tenure at HEW was notably marked by the successful distribution of the Salk polio vaccine. Outside of her government career, she was a prominent figure in journalism, serving as the editor and publisher of the Houston Post and building it into a significant media enterprise.
About our Speaker: A native of Dallas, Texas, Dr. Don Carleton is the founding executive director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and he holds the J. R. Parten Chair in the Archives of American History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of fifteen books, including Red Scare; Dolph Briscoe: My Life in Texas Politics and Ranching; Conversations with Cronkite; and most recently, Bill Hobby: A Life in Journalism and Public Service (co-authored with Erin Purdy). Oveta Culp Hobby’s definitive biographer, Dr. Carleton also authored The Governor and the Colonel: A Dual Biography of William P. Hobby and Oveta Culp Hobby (2020), which was featured in the Texas Book Festival.
Dr. Carleton also is the editor of several books, including Behold the People: The Photographs of R. C. Hickman and Black Dallas and Flash of Light, Wall of Fire: Japanese Photographs Documenting the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He is the executive producer and historical advisor for two PBS documentaries: When I Rise (2010) and Cactus Jack: Lone Star on Capitol Hill (2016). Dr. Carleton served as chief researcher and historical advisor for former CBS newsman and anchor Walter Cronkite’s best-selling memoir A Reporter’s Life and Cronkite’s television mini-series “Cronkite Remembers.” From 1998 until 2008, he conducted dozens of in-depth video oral history interviews with pioneers of broadcast journalism for the Television Academy Foundation in Los Angeles (The Emmys Foundation), including Fess Parker, David Brinkley, Andy Rooney, Ed Bradley, Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, and Jim Lehrer. All are available on YouTube. Dr. Carleton has worked as a historical consultant, lecturer, and researcher in Nicaragua, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Israel, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, and Japan.